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46 committing himself to pneumatic tyres because other people use them. I admit that the Michelin tyre is a beautiful piece of constructive work, still for some time past I have been gradually increasing the proportion of solid tyres in my stable.

In referring to horse-power, though I do not wish to encroach on the mechanical portion of this book, I would point out that to the lay mind the term is very misleading. It was thus that the earlier motor-cars were greatly under-powered. The average man imagined that a one-horse engine was equal to one horse, that therefore a six-horse was equal to six horses, and that a carriage propelled by six horses was good enough for anyone. The term horse-power is open to much misconstruction, it is very loosely used by manufacturers in their advertisements, and, as to advertisements generally, I advise considerable caution in accepting their statements. No manufacturer would decry his wares, and the statements of the leading firms of makers may, as a rule, be received; nevertheless, any person who has carefully considered the pages of advertisements in the motor-car papers will long ago have come to the conclusion that for ways that are dark the motor-car agent is, in some cases, a long way in advance of the horse-dealer.

A good motor carriage, of course, requires constant care and attention and skill. I was talking recently to the owner of several very good cars on which he had spent some thousands of pounds. They had been turned over to the care of a coachman, with the result that, though the poor fellow did his best, the vehicles began to be regarded as a mere nuisance. One would not dream of putting a coachman in charge of a printing machine, a steam launch, or a cathedral organ; yet each of these exquisite pieces of mechanism is as little associated with a stable and a coachman as a motor-car. Coachmen can be taught to drive motor-cars, but there is a great difference between mere driving and a mechanical comprehension of the machinery. In the case of the electric carriage, a shrewd coachman or groom can easily be trained to take complete charge.

A good many people interested in motor-car matters are